“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
John F. Kennedy.
The idea that an informed electorate is better than an ignorant one shouldn’t be too controversial, right? I certainly hope not.
To that end, I have been doing a lot of research on the 2022 midterm elections over the past few weeks. While I would consider myself an informed voter, there are some down-ballot races where I know nothing about any of the candidates. Rather than apply my approach to taking standardized tests to voting (i.e., creating cool patterns with my answers), I strive to make every choice based on at least some knowledge of the candidate’s backgrounds, positions, etc.
In this quest for knowledge, I repeatedly came across paywalls that prevented me from accessing the content I needed to vote intelligently. Trust me, I am a huge advocate that truly meaningful content comes at a cost. That can be in the form of subscriptions, advertising, etc. where part of the revenue is used to hire great journalists. We all win in this scenario.
But preventing people from accessing election-related content via a paywall is a no-win situation. As a consumer, I am less informed…and kinda pissed. For media companies, do you really think that I’m going to subscribe for a handful of articles on the 2022 midterm elections? I don’t subscribe for the other 50 weeks so why would you ever think that I would for the two weeks around the midterm election. Not happening. I get frustrated, you alienate potential readers.
So why don’t you tear down your firewalls for election-related content for the two weeks before each election? Open the content to anyone trying to get informed. Hell, I’ll pay for a $5 election pass that will get me through the firewall.
If I can’t access the content on your website, I’ll have to get my election news from somewhere else. Yea, that’s a frightening proposition.
#wecandobetter #vote #2022
Northampton Consulting 